Independent video games (commonly referred to as indie games) are video games created by individuals or small teams generally without video game publisher financial support. Indie games often focus on innovation and rely on digital distribution. Indie gaming has seen a rise in the latter half of the 2000s decade, primarily due to new online distribution methods and development tools. Some games originated as indie have become very successful financially, such as Braid,[1]World of Goo,[2]Flow, and Minecraft.[3]

Contents

There is no exact widely accepted definition of what constitutes an "indie game".[4][5][6][7] However, indie games generally share certain characteristics. Indie games are developed by individuals, small teams, or small independent companies;[5][8][9] such companies are often specifically formed for the development of one specific game. Typically, indie games are smaller than mainstream titles.[9] Indie game developers are generally not financially backed by video game publishers (as these are risk averse and prefer big budget games)[10] and usually have little to no budget available.[4][5][7][11][12] Being independent, indie developers do not have controlling interests[6] or creative limitations[5][13][7] and do not require publisher approval[4] as mainstream game developers usually do.[14] Design decisions are thus also not limited by the allocated budget.[13] Furthermore, smaller team sizes increase individual involvement.[15] Small teams, scope, and no creative restrictions have made indie games known for innovation, creativity, and artistic experimentation.[4][9][15][16][17][18][19] Developers limited in ability to create graphics can rely on gameplay innovation.[20] Both classic game genres and new gameplay innovation have been seen.[17] However, being "indie" does not imply that the game focuses on innovation.[9][21] In fact, many games attributed the "indie" label can be of poor quality and may not be made for profit.[7]

In order to fund the game, developers can rely on starting a crowd-funding campaign, finding a publisher,[12][22][23] or building community support while in development.[24] Without publisher support, developers generally rely on Internet digital distribution options.[25] Most indie games do not make significant profit.[26]

Indie game development should not be confused with hobbyist game development, as indie developers are generally more product-oriented than hobbyist game writers.[6] Many hobbyist developers create mods of existing games,[25] or work with specific technologies or game parts.[6] Such hobbyists usually produce non-commercial products and may range from novices to industry veterans.[6]

The indie game scene started on PCs,[5] where it remains prominent.[19] Indie games became popular via shareware distribution in the early 1990s.[19] However, as technology advanced—especially the transition from 2D to fully 3D gaming—requirements and high user expectations exceeded the ability of a single developer or small team.[19][27]

Like mainstream video game industry is comparable to mainstream film industry,[32] so is indie gaming industry comparable to independent film industry.[13][33][34] However game distribution is shifting towards online marketing.[33] For developers, online marketing is much more profitable[20] and more readily available than retail marketing. Although, distribution portals have been criticized for collecting a large portion the game revenue,[16] in 2008 a developer could earn around 17% of game's retail price and around 85% if sold digitally.[20] This also leads to appearance of more "risky" creative projects.[20] Furthermore, expansion of social web-sites have introduced gaming to casual gamers.[5] Nevertheless, there are few examples of games that have made large profits, and for many indie game-making serves as a career stepping stone, rather than a commercial opportunity.[28]

It is argued as to how prominent indie gaming currently is in video game industry.[16] Most games are not widely known or successful and mainstream media attention remains with mainstream titles.[35][5] This can be attributed to lack of marketing for indie games.[35] Indie games can be targeted at niche market.[9][19]

Indie Game Jam (IGJ) is an annual event that allows indie game developers to experiment and present ideas without publisher restrictions.[37] IGJ was founded by Chris Hecker and Sean Barrett[38][39] and first held in March 2002.[38] Each year, IGJ poses different questions about innovation of new settings, genres, and controls.[40] The IGJ was considered an inspiration for later game jams including the Nordic Game Jam and the Global Game Jam (GGJ). GGJ was first held in 2009 with 1650 participants in 53 locations.[41]

^MARCELO PRINCE, PETER ROTH (2004-12-21). "Videogame Publishers Place Big Bets on Big-Budget Games". Wall Street Journal Online. Retrieved 2013-07-01. The jump in development and marketing costs has made the videogame industry "enormously risk averse,[...]Publishers have largely focused on making sequels to successful titles or games based on movie or comic book characters, which are seen as less risky. "We don't green light any more things that will be small or average size games.[...]"

^Walker, John (2007-11-22). "RPS Exclusive: Gabe Newell Interview". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 2013-06-28. The worst days were the cartridge days for the NES. It was a huge risk; you had all this money tied up in silicon in a warehouse somewhere, and so you’d be conservative in the decisions you felt you could make, very conservative in the IPs you signed, your art direction would not change, and so on. Now it’s the opposite extreme: we can put something up on Steam , deliver it to people all around the world, make changes. We can take more interesting risks.[...] Retail doesn’t know how to deal with those games. On Steam there’s no shelf-space restriction.